Joan Didion

One of the most highly regarded chroniclers of postwar American history, as well as a celebrated novelist and screenwriter, Joan Didion examined the country's cultural upheavals through precise, unfli...
Read More...

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /media/www/hollywood/Web/releases/20150325105258/vendor/doctrine/common/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/FileCacheReader.php on line 202
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /media/www/hollywood/Web/releases/20150325105258/vendor/doctrine/common/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/FileCacheReader.php on line 202
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /media/www/hollywood/Web/releases/20150325105258/vendor/doctrine/common/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/FileCacheReader.php on line 202
Joni Mitchell named new face of Yves Saint Laurent

By:
WENN.com
Jan 09, 2015

Folk music legend Joni Mitchell has been named the new face of fashion house Yves Saint Laurent. The 71-year-old star was shot by the luxury brand's creative director Hedi Slimane at her home in Bel Air, California.
The photoshoot was part of the Saint Laurent Music Project campaign, which has also featured pop heavyweights including Marianne Faithfull, Daft Punk and Marilyn Manson.
The announcement of Mitchell as the brand's new ambassador comes after acclaimed American author Joan Didion was named the new face of fashion brand Celine at the age of 80 earlier this week (end11Jan15).

Acclaimed American author Joan Didion has become the new face of luxury fashion brand Celine at the age of 80. The Year of Magical Thinking writer is featured in new campaign ads for the Spring 2015 collection.

Actor and filmmaker Griffin Dunne has launched a crowd-sourcing campaign in a bid to raise the funds he needs to complete work on the "first and only" documentary about his aunt, famed American author Joan Didion. The Accidental Husband director is collaborating with Susanne Rostock to make We Tell Ourselves Stories to Live, with Didion's help, and he has turned to Kickstarter.com in the hope that fans will donate cash to enable them to turn the project into a reality.
A statement on the campaign page reads: "Our film will tell Joan's story through passages she has chosen (and will read aloud) from her work, as her friends, family, colleagues and critics share their accounts of her remarkable life and writing.
"Patti Smith, Vanessa Redgrave, Allison Janney, Graydon Carter, Robert Silvers, and Bret Easton Ellis are just a few of the people we'll interview.
"We want to honor Joan's language, to visualize the stories she tells, to put her words to picture. Joan's obsessive memory, and her sharp and unsettling observations, will be brought to life, using music and images - rare and atmospheric film and stills that encapsulate her words. We will also be using rare archival (items) from Joan's personal life and family history."
Dunne and Rostock unveiled the project on Wednesday (22Oct14) and within a few hours of its launch, over half of the $80,000 (£50,000) fundraising target had been reached.
The filmmakers have until 21 November (14) to hit their total.

AMC
There's a scene in a recent episode of Mad Men in which Megan Draper (Jessica Paré) has a threesome with her husband Don and her new friend Amy. It would be easy to claim that this scene represents Megan's free spirit, and that she embodies the progressive movement of the 1960s. It would also be false.
In fact, this scene and Megan's detachment in the morning after imply that Megan isn't as progressive as she thinks she is. Born into privilege and dependent on Don's finances, Megan hates the fact that she's old-fashioned, so she dabbles into what she believes will make her appear bohemian. She calls herself an actress, dresses in the latest trendy fashion, and throws hip parties for her guitar playing friends. When no one's watching, however, she asks Don for money and puts up with his philandering.
So much of Mad Men is about the construction of identity, and about trying to be someone you're not--someone you think you ought to be. The female characters, especially, grapple with this, especially as conceptions of womanhood became complicated in the 1960s. Megan is perhaps the most interesting precisely because she can't accept who she truly is. Whereas Betty has at least come to terms with the fact that she's a terrible mother who never wanted children, and Peggy recently acknowledged her loneliness and isolation as a career driven woman with no family, Megan hasn't realized the extent to which her entire public appearance is a facade.
There are some viewers, however, who believe that Megan is a "new woman." They suggest that while she indeed loves and depends on Don, she gives equal attention to her career aspirations, and uproots traditional order with her bohemian lifestyle. These viewers, I think, are missing the point. Unlike Stephanie, Anna Draper's niece who genuinely embodies the counter-culture, Megan is a spoiled rich kid who wants a taste of that life without any of the consequences Joan Didion famously wrote about in Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Megan presents herself as a radical while she lives comfortably out of Don's pocket, which means that she's not radical at all.
What do you think? Am I being too harsh on Megan, or is she as fake as I make her out to be. Cast your vote in the poll below.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//

2013 Getty Images
Cate Blanchett is, without a doubt, one of the great actors of our time. She's been delivering powerful performances for the past 20 years, with her roles in films like The Aviator, Elizabeth, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button just a few on a long list of great works. We were so excited to learn that the amazing Aussie talent is getting ready to go behind the camera, as she'll be making her directorial debut with an adaptation of the bestselling novel The Dinner. Here are a few reasons we're expecting very big things from this project.
It’s Technically Not Her First Time Directing
Theatre-heads know this better than the rest of us, but Blanchett has been in the director's seat before. Her husband (playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton) runs the Sydney Theatre Company, and Blanchett has directed David Harrower’s Blackbird and Joan Didion’s Pulitzer Prize-finalist memoir The Year Of Magical Thinking. Obviously, directing for the big screen will be different from directing for the stage, but we expect that Blanchett will make a strong transition.
The Novel Was A Huge Deal
The Dinner is a Dutch novel by Herman Koch. It was a European sensation, an international best seller (making the New York Times bestseller list), and the plot sounds like it was just asking to be adapted into a film. The psychologoical thriller tells the story of parents who must meet for dinner and deal with the ramifications of a horrific crime committed by their sons; it's been described as "the European Gone Girl." We can't wait to see how Blanchett brings such a tale to life.
The Oren Moverman Factor
One of the most exciting things about the project is that Blanchett is teaming up with the Oscar-nominated writer Oren Moverman. Moverman is adapting the novel for the screen, and since he was partly responsible for the critically-acclaimed 2009 film The Messenger, we think this could make for a dream collaboration.
Her Red Carpet Sensibility
This may sounds strange, but based on Cate Blanchett's red carpet stylings, we think she is going to make a fantastic film. Cinematography is everything, and Blanchett's recent, show-stopping looks (like this one) have us convinced that she knows how to make artistic magic happen in more ways than one.
She's Learned From The Best
Right now Blanchett is starring in Blue Jasmine, which is on its way to being Woody Allen's highest-grossing film to date. And Allen is just one of the many great directors Blanchett has worked with; Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson, David Fincher, and Terrence Malick are just a handful of the filmmakers we think Blanchett will be drawing on when she gets behind the camera. If these guys have any influence on her debut, the possibilities are endless.
Follow @Hollywood_com
More:'Blue Jasmine' ReviewJoseph Gordon-Levitt Talks Directorial DebutMarion Cotillard Is Everything
//
From Our Partners:40 Most Revealing See-Through Red Carpet Looks (Vh1)15 Stars Share Secrets of their Sex Lives (Celebuzz)

Star Wars creator George Lucas and writer Joan Didion were among the 24 people honoured with presidential medals at the White House on Wednesday (10Jul13). Paying tribute to the newlywed filmmaker, who received a National Medal of Arts, U.S. President Barack Obama told the media and dignitaries that Star Wars had amazed him.
He said, "I remember when I first saw it. There's a whole generation that thinks special effects always look like they do today. But it used to be you'd see, like, the string on the little model spaceships."
Obama also handed out medals to sportswriter Frank Deford, musician and music mogul Herb Alpert, playwright Tony Kushner, opera star Renee Fleming, jazz great Allen Toussaint and 78-year-old author Didion, stating, "Decades into her career, she remains one of our sharpest and most respected observers of American politics and culture."

Top Story: CBS Says They Didn't Pay Jackson for Interview
Both CBS and Michael Jackson have denied reports that the network paid the pop singer for his exclusive interview on 60 Minutes. According to Reuters, a New York Times report on Wednesday, based on an anonymous source described as a disgruntled former business associate of Jackson's, said that the network landed the Ed Bradley interview by agreeing to pay $1 million extra to license their previously shelved music special celebrating Jackson's career, which airs Jan. 2. CBS and two of Jackson's closest representatives, however, told Reuters the terms of Jackson's entertainment special and his 60 Minutes interview were negotiated separately. "This was not a package deal," CBS spokesman Chris Ender told Reuters. "These were two parallel projects. They were being developed and worked on independently." Enders did admit, however, that the two projects became "linked" in the aftermath of the allegations against Jackson "when we told Mr. Jackson's representatives that we couldn't broadcast the entertainment special if he wasn't addressing the situation on a CBS News program." Jackson's defense lawyer, Mark Geragos, conceded the prospect of reviving Jackson's music special likely weighed in his decision to go on 60 Minutes, Reuters reports. "I think that's a fair statement," he said when asked if Jackson did the interview to get the special back on CBS.
Rush Guitarist Arrested New Year's Eve
Alex Zivojinovich, the lead guitarist for the rock band Rush and better known by his stage name Alex Lifeson, was arrested Wednesday night for drunken and violent behavior after attacking sheriff's deputies at the Naples, Fla., Ritz-Carlton hotel, AP reports. Deputies said they used a stun gun on Zivojinovich, 50, who faces six charges that include aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, and disorderly intoxication after a scuffle broke out when Zivojinovich's son Justin refused to leave the stage. Justin, 33, and his wife Michelle Zivojinovich, 30, were also arrested.
Imbruglia Gets Hitched
Actress-turned-pop singer Natalie Imbruglia, 28, and Daniel Johns, 24, frontman of the Australian band Silverchair, exchanged vows Wednesday in a private ceremony at an exclusive resort on Australia's northeastern coast, The Associated Press reports. It's the first marriage for both.
Screenwriter Dunne Dies
Author-screenwriter John Gregory Dunne, best known for his screen collaborations with wife Joan Didion, including The Panic in Needle Park and the 1976 remake A Star is Born, died Tuesday in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack, Reuters reports. He was 71.
French Author Says Disney Copied Nemo
Franck Le Calvez, a French children's book author, claims Finding Nemo closely resembles his book Pierrot the Clown Fish, in which his hero, a wide-eyed, orange-striped fish, gets separated from his family, AP reports. In February, a court will hear his case against Disney and Pixar Animation, the French newspaper Le Monde reports. The case is for breach of copyright and trademark, and Le Calvez also wants Nemo merchandise taken off the shelves of French shops.
Norway's Idol Wins World Title
Norway's Pop Idol Kurt Nilsen picked up the World Idol title Thursday, beating 10 other Idol competitors from across the globe including American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, AP reports. Nilson, a 25-year-old plumber, won the Norwegian version of Pop Idol in May. His single, "She's So High," went straight to No. 1 in the Norwegian singles chart and is the country's biggest-selling single to date.
Irwin Introduces Baby to First Croc Feeding
Animal Planet's wacky Crocodile Hunter host and animal activist Steve Irwin took his infant son to his first crocodile feeding Friday, AP reports, offering a chicken to the snapping croc while holding the baby, Bob, in his other hand. "He's one month old, so it's about time Bob got out there and did his first croc demo," the Australian celebrity told the crowd at the Australian Zoo. Irwin's wife Terri, who gave birth to her second child Dec. 1, also attended the show, billed as the baby's "croc feeding debut."
Willie Nelson To Debut Antiwar Ballad
Country singer Willie Nelson plans to debut his new song, the antiwar ballad "What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth," at a fund-raising concert Saturday for Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich in Austin, Texas. "Now, I haven't played it for Toby (Keith) yet," a laughing Nelson told the Austin American-Statesman on Tuesday. Although the two are close friends, the sentiments of Nelson's song are the polar opposite of Keith's angry-American anthem "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," with its call to arms. "Toby wrote that song in reaction to 9/11, which was a totally different thing than watching U.S. soldiers die in Iraq," Nelson said. "Toby's said he's not a Republican or a Democrat; he's a Christian. So we're coming from the same place."
Role Call: Mostow Counts Seconds; Woody Allen Robs Pierre
Terminator 3 director Jonathan Mostow has signed to write and direct a remake of John Frankenheimer's film Seconds for Paramount Pictures. According to Variety, the original 1966 film starred John Randolph as an older man who gets a new lease on life with a new face and identity. Even though he's reconstituted in the handsome visage of Rock Hudson, the change brings its own problems. No one has been cast at yet. Seconds becomes the second film by the late Frankenheimer that is being remade by Paramount…Jonathan Demme will direct Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber in The Manchurian Candidate…Director W

Began at VOGUE writing merchandising and promotional copy; promoted to associate feature editor

Moved to NYC in the summer

During the last two years of publication of the old SATURDAY EVENING POST, the couple alternated writing the column "Points West"

Completed her second novel, the critically acclaimed bestseller "Play It As It Lays" which garnered a six-figure income and a National Book Award nomination

By age 13, was typing pages from the fiction of Ernest Hemingway and Joseph Conrad so as to see "how sentences worked" (date approximate)

Three months into marriage, Dunne and Didion took a leave of absence from their jobs to visit Southern California; decided to stay and work as freelancers

Moved into a NYC apartment with Dunne

First screenwriting collaboration with Dunne, scripted the acclaimed feature "The Panic in Needle Park"; produced by Dunne's brother Dominick, helmed by fashion photogrpher-turned-director Jerry Schatzberg and featuring Al Pacino in his first starring rol

Gained acclaim as an essayist with the publication of "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", a celebrated collection of her essays from the SATURDAY EVENING POST and other publications

TV writing debut (with Dunne), adapted Hemingway's short story, "The Hills Like White Elephants" for "Women & Men: Stories of Seduction", as part of a dramatic anthology presentation on "HBO Showcase"

Attended public schools during the week and Sunday religious classes at the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral

With Dunne, created concept and worked on early drafts of the 1976 remake of "A Star Is Born"; shared points in the profits of the film and soundtrack; the deal proved extremely profitable

Had first novel published, "Run River"

Returned to Sacramento after the war

Collaborated with Dunne to adapt "Play It As It Lays" for film; co-produced by brother-in-law Dominick (with Frank Perry); starred Tuesday Weld; directed by Perry

By the early 1960s, was also freelancing for MADAMOISELLE and the NATIONAL REVIEW

Earned a combined total of $7,000 in their first year in California

With Dunne, adapted his novel "True Confessions" for the film version starring Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro

Returned to features after 15 years to co-script (with Dunne) "Up Close and Personal", a romantic drama loosely adapted from Alanna Nash's "Golden Girl", a nonfiction account of the life of ill-fated newsanchor Jessica Savitch; starred Robert Redford and

Wrote a controversial article for THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE in which she criticized modern feminism

Published "The Last Thing He Wanted", her first novel in 12 years

Named a visiting regents lecturer in English literature at the University of California at Berkeley

Took a leave of absence from her staff position to finish her first novel, "Run River"

Born in the Sacramento Valley where her family had lived for five generations

Shortly before graduating college, submitted a long article on architect William Wilson Wurster to VOGUE magazine's "Prix de Paris" contest for young writers; won first prize; entitled to either a trip to Paris or a cash prize and a job at VOGUE, chose th

Summary

One of the most highly regarded chroniclers of postwar American history, as well as a celebrated novelist and screenwriter, Joan Didion examined the country's cultural upheavals through precise, unflinching reportage of life in Southern California in such acclaimed works as <i>Slouching Towards Bethlehem</i> (1968), <i>The White Album</i> (1979) and <i>After Henry</i> (1992), as well as the novels <i>Play It As It Lays</i> (1970) and <i>Where I Was From</i> (2003). Didion's observations on California and America as a whole contrasted the golden ideal of the Golden State's past with its convoluted, often fractured present while also detailing her own personal issues, which were intertwined within the narrative. Her approach made her a key figure in the "New Journalism" movement, which filtered the author's feelings and experiences through the context of their subjects. Didion's potent voice also spawned a successful screenwriting career with her husband, author John Gregory Dunne, for such films as "The Panic in Needle Park" (1971), "A Star is Born" (1976) and "Up Close & Personal" (1996). Dunne's death and their daughter's illness in 2003 later inspired her most personal work, <i>The Year of Magical Thinking</i> (2005), which became a Broadway play in 2007. Didion's extraordinary body of work, detailed over a five-decade career, made her one of the most acclaimed American writers of the late 20th century and beyond.

Name

Role

Comments

Frank Didion

Father

family originally came from Alsace-Lorraine

Eduene Didion

Mother

descended from English settlers who came to America during the Revolutionary War

James Didion

Brother

born in December 1939; worked at Coldwell Banker, a large Western real estate firm